OK! Magazine points us to some new photos of Britney Spears out getting a Frappuccino (natch) while wearing sweatpants, her engagement ring from Jason Trawick conspicuously absent from her left hand. (We don’t have those photos, you can see them here.) Now, an argument could be made for Britney going casual and leaving her jewelry at home. However, I also found photos of her in sweats less than a month ago, wearing her engagement ring. I’m thinking that Hollyscoop’s report before the holidays, that Jason and Britney were on the rocks, was accurate. Radar had a follow-up before Christmas claiming that it was make or break time for Britney and Jason. They’ve been together for three years, engaged for over a year, and they haven’t set a wedding date yet. So I believe that they’re having trouble. According to Radar, the only thing keeping them from breaking up was the fact that Jason is still Britney’s co-conservator, and it’s complicated legally. Here’s that older report:

“It’s a make or break holiday for Britney and Jason,” a source close to the Toxic singer told RadarOnline.com.

“Things have been getting worse and worse with their relationship for several months now, and they know they have to figure things out once and for all because they can’t keep going on like this.”

However, as Jason is a co-conservator over Britney’s estate and contractually has to be on set with her at all times during taping of The X Factor, the decision to stay together or not isn’t an easy one to make for either of them.

“If they do decide to call off the engagement for good, things are going to be tricky, legally and financially, so it isn’t just the state of their relationship they have to think about,” the source said.

“If there wasn’t those considerations involved they would of split a while ago.

“They hope to come to a decision before the new year,” the source divulged.

Meanwhile, it seems Spears may already be laying the groundwork to appear as the dumper, not the dumped!

A close source tells Radar that Britney has said she and Jason have been fighting because he wants to have kids and she doesn’t!

“Britney said Jason wants to be a father, and while he’s happily taken on the role of adopted dad to both Jayden and Sean, he still wants Britney to have his kids,” the insider says.

“Britney says she’s happy with just her two children at the moment and wants to concentrate on her career, which doesn’t sit well with Jason.

“Which is kind of bizarre as just a few months ago she would of JUMPED at the chance to expand her family with Jason. There seems to have been a marked turnaround in Britney’s thought process and emotions recently, and quite frankly, it doesn’t ring true!”

If that’s true, and Britney did take a stand at not wanting to have more children now, good for her. She really struggled with motherhood, to say the least, and that’s probably for the best that she not plan for more kids.

Meanwhile, Radar has a related story about Britney’s career. Her schedule is open now that The X-Factor has wrapped and she’s not expected to return for another season. Radar claims her people are hoping to get her a recurring television guest spot. Their source spills that “Britney’s manager, Larry Rudolph, is reading television scripts that the singer could accept. Britney’s dad, Jamie feels that having his daughter on a sitcom would be a good fit for her. Britney needs to be kept busy, and a structured environment such as a television sitcom would be a natural fit for her.” Britney has guested on How I Met Your Mother and Will and Grace, and an ongoing guest spot wouldn’t be a bad idea for her. It’s not like she can act, but she’s passable.

I hate that Britney’s handlers are saying she “needs to be kept busy,” though. It’s like she can only be busy on their terms and has no say in how she spends her time. Maybe that’s why it ultimately didn’t work out with Jason, he was just another person telling her what to do. Are Britney and Jason going to announce a split, or are they waiting to see if they can work things out? I get the sense they have broken up and gotten back together a few times.

Britney out on 12-15-12 with her engagement ring. Credit: FameFlynet. Other photos credit: WENN.com

Brit: you have enough dough to live beyond comfortably. If I was you, I’d retire, spend more time with the kiddos, travel around the world, do humanitarian work, get a degree…girl, your possibilities are endless…if only you had the will and mental/emotional strenght to handle it. I still vouch for ya, Brit!

I’ve always thought that she should move back home (Louisianna??) and maybe open a dance studio. But with so many people gaining $$$ from her, and the fact that she can’t legally control her life, I don’t see how it could happen.

She already traveled the world and created camps for underprivileged children.

So, what you might consider exciting and meaningful is not necessarily what she needs.

Britney seems to need stability and a sense of home. A steady job and staying in one place with the same daily routine seems like the best thing that can happen to her (or to any of Brangelina children).

Not working doesn’t sound like a good option, and while I do hope she donates money to charity, and that she’s got any money left (usually people like her get robbed by all of those handlers), I don’t really see what kind of humanitarian work she could do.

I’m not sure she managed to have any proper and formal education to enable her to enroll in college, though she can certainly take some classes without the pressure of enrolling in a degree program.

I do hope people would stop labeling her as sick or diagnose her mental state.
The girl has been scrutinized in the most judgemental way as a mother, exploited in the coldest and most cynical way by her ex husband and all that time she had to mother 2 very young children.

I feel for her and think that most of us would end up having a lot of trouble coping and handling ourselves better than she does.

That’s my 2 cents.

I will never forget how Matt Lauer exploited her sensitive state when he pushed her into tears when he interviewed her.

Exactly. I am probably going to get slammed, but these conspiracy theories, Brittney as a hostage conclusions are nonsense. We all know what happened when she was without help or any form structure-5150.

The woman not only has issues but is mentally ill. She probably does therapy and is on meds. It’s not like she’s imprisoned: she goes out alone and has a life away from TV and entertainment. If she wanted out of the arrangement , she can petition the court.

Anyone here ever consider that she has no interests outside of entertainment and has no desire to move to another area or do anything else? Or has everybody forgotten the 3 years she spent melting down, losing her kids and being a danger to herself and others?

Sorry for the rant but sees people have short memories about whether this woman could handle her life withou t supervision.

I don’t agree with that statement…if someone is getting proper medical care of course they are entitled to love and happiness just like any other person with a medical condition. What makes me uncomfortable is that he has legal conservatorship over her and therefore acts in essence like a parent and that she has little legal recourse to make decisions in her life and that many people seem to be profiting at her expense.

I wish she could keep busy on her own terms- she seems so uncomfortable in the public eye. Can’t they let her buy a farm or something- find fulfillment in keeping busy with those type of chores?
I don’t know- it’s been a sad situation for a long time.

I know, she always has that clinched teeth “smile”….she seems terrified. I don’t see her as a mental case, though; that’s a terrible thing to say. Mental health isn’t a funny thing or something to make fun of…her boys are cute and hopefully they don’t turn out to be mini K-Feds. If she is able and wants to work, more power to her.

It’s true, at least in my experience, that people prone to depression/mental illness, do need to stay busy and engaged with the world. But it doesn’t seem like being on stage makes Britney happy or comfortably any more (if it ever did). If only she could spend some time finding something she is passionate about–teaching performance to children, animals, charity, something, other than being a “pop star”.

Why does it look like she has her ring on in the header picture they show but then when they show the closeup it isn’t there? I’ve also seen other pictures from this set and you can see she has on some kind of ring on her engagement finger. Once again it’s just the press trying to start something. I do think Jason shouldn’t be involved with her conservatorship though. He seems like a solid guy so I hope they make it.

Britney was doped to her eyeballs on antipsychotics for a long time after her breakdown. While it’s clear from her mannerisms and pictures that her medical team has eased up on the dosages, she’s still taking very strong meds. She’s wise to consider not having any more pregnancies (if this gossip is indeed true).

I agree with other posters – she needs to leave the public eye and work on healing. She has millions and millions of dollars. Sadly, her father’s entrusting Jason with her well-being puts her in a bind.

People have psychological problems even without having been abused. There is really no need to create elaborate conspiracy theories to explain the erratic behavior of Britney or Karen Mulder. Movies or something seem to give people a vivid imagination about the efficacy of “mind control”.

I’ve never been a huge Britney fan but I feel so sorry for her. She was thrust into the spotlight at a young age and she has obviously suffered because of it. She never, ever looks comfortable at events or when being photographed at events. She looks happiest when she is papped doing normal, unceleb things like getting her frappacinno and being with her kids.

I agree with the poster above who suggests she retire, enjoy the world, her kids, etc. She’d be so much happier.

There’s a blind on CDAN saying that she caught JT cheating and now she won’t talk to him or take a shower (?! Dafuq!?).

I’m bipolar too, and the meds do help–a LOT–but when I’m on them there is a huge difference in my personality. I know what she’s going through and it makes me so sad. I wish they’d let her rest, relax and be happy.

had to comment on this because i love britney. but her management team kind of annoys me, i think she hsould be in a nice structure environment because that’s what seems to personally work for her, but the people “handling” her should concentrate on her more. i’ve gotten the impression that all of this is about her doing things and using her to make a quick buck, which makes me really sad.

I find it hard to believe that Trawick would want kids with Britney, mean as that sounds, which isn’t meant to be.

It just seems that Britney has enough on her plate and I just can’t see why he’d want to put that kind of pressure on her, esp after all that she’s been through. I don’t believe this story. If he really cared for her, why would he want to do that?

I think something else is going on.

That said, I seem to remember that early on in her career, showbiz and performing was fun for Britney, she really wanted to do it, and was having the time of her life. There is some sense of that in the early documentaries.

But you can also see the light go out in her eyes as time goes on. In her videos, and in some of those documentaries or other other ones, I can’t remember, it’s almost uncomfortable and sad, watching her and the kind of life she was living, the people around her, what she was exposed to, and so on. Didn’t really seem fun anymore.

I think it alllll got to be way way too much for her.
When she took a break (I think with her first kid?), I remember some of her interviews where she was saying she wanted a normal life and she wanted to stop and just get off the crazy show biz train.

I think she didn’t even take her video sex kitten stuff that seriously either, like it was all a joke and fun and yah, she’d do it but in reality, she was just a normal gal. Like she was in on the joke of the video/marketed Britney vs. the real Britney.
But, originally, she was really athletic and sporty.
Soooo, something’s happened to her for sure, just based on the way she conducts herself now and how she just doesn’t seem to bother anymore.

Maybe she’s just over it, and just wants to live her life comfortably and not have to deal with crap anymore. She lets the business people do what they want because why the f*** not because they run her life anyway, so she says f*** it and shows up, does her thing, and goes home. She probably does need structure and does need to work, but I feel too that they’re just working her as much as they can to make as much money as they can from her before she’s thoroughly done and then they drop her and start all over again someone else. I think she likes performing but without all the pressure and that she hates the business side of show biz.

I think he wants children with her so that he will always have access to her money. I still can’t believe that the judge gave him co-control over her finances. Didn’t the judge realize that people get divorced all the time? What would happen then, if Britney’s dad dies and it gets acrimonius with the now ex-husband? I truly hate that Britney is still at the mercy of this judge and the people around her. They could take care of her without owning her, too.

Her boys are so cute! They look like twins a bit. Her demeanor in the pics with them and the red carpet photos show a stark difference. The fake smile makes her appear nervous or as if she’s barely holding it together. I really feel sorry for her. I would love for Britney to find something that she truly enjoys doing. It’s clear that deep down, performing and being ‘Britney Spears’ just isn’t doing it for her. Although to be fair, there are probably A LOT of people in the business who have a disillusioned opinion of their celebrity. It just doesn’t manifest like Britney or Lindsay. Even if it’s making pottery, quilting, or heck doing voiceover work while in her turtleneck and sweats. The sad thing is there are probably enough people around her who would discourage her against leaving the music industry.

These “they broke up because he/she isn’t wearing their wedding/engagement ring” are annoying. People take off their rings all of the time. It’s times likes these where I think being a celebrity isn’t so great. Just the most insignificant things makes the media explode.

I don’t know. Maybe the whole “needs to be kept busy” thing is good for Britney. We don’t know what Britney’s mental state behind closed door is. Maybe when she is not busy she wonders around with nothing to do and gets worse in her mental state.

And we all saw Britney on X Factor. I really hoped that when she will go out and interact with real people in live show then she would get better and we would see glimpse of “old Britney”. And that trained robot from interviews will disappear. But sadly it’s irreversible. Even on X Factor, when Britney was out of her safe house – she was still empty and dead inside. She coudln’t say anything spontaneous. It’s probably her medicine. But still – it’s like he personality vanished. So sad.

Maybe she gets better when she works. I actually believe that her team choses “safe” jobs for her. Where she won’t be hurt and won’t be stressed. They don’t push her on live interviews, they don’t allow journalists to ask her sharp questions, we all saw how other judges were afraid to say anything negative to Britney (it was probably in contract).

No wonder they want to put her on “safe” sitcom role. It’s not like she can go to SNL, Homeland or anything other. She can guest star on CSI or Castle. Play some rich woman.